Vampyres: Daughters of Dracula (1974)

Unrequited love and I are no strangers, but just as the muscle eventually grows stronger from the rigorous demands of exercise, so too do I grow more resistant to the sorrows of the lovelorn heart. It is sometimes an issue of attraction only going one way or knowing full well that the honest divulgence of true feelings will most certainly bring severe complications. In either case, it is perhaps best to take the noble route, walk the way of the hero, endure the pain – which will eventually subside in due time – and wish and bestow a fortunate and happy life upon that of the desired, even if I am not to be a part of that future.

Other times it is a matter of knowing when you are playing with fire and that the only best possible solution is to retreat for good, lest you find yourself meeting your doom in more ways than one. But alas, seduction sometimes overrules rational thought, and, like the lead in José Ramón Larraz’s languorous sexy vampire British horror, Vampyres: Daughters of Dracula; even with all routes of escape firmly planted while in the face of a deadly situation, the allure and honor of coalescing with that mysterious, sexy beauty once again somehow seems worth it.

A couple of lady vampires, Fran (Marianne Morris) and Miriam (Anulka Dziubinska), haunt an old vacant mansion isolated in the woods. They seem to have a pretty efficient system for securing blood nourishment by hitchhiking rides from vulnerable English chaps and taking them back to their place. After enticing these poor gentlemen with delectable vintage wines from the cellar and seducing them, Fran and Miriam do their vampire business and leave the bodies inside their crashed vehicles on the road, making it look like an accident.

One peculiar instance involves Fran hitching a ride from Ted (Murray Brown), who I’m going to call the protagonist, even if that is a little iffy in this case. After leading him through the dusty old mansion to a surprisingly well maintained room, they bond a little over wine and make love. In every other instant the men are usually killed on the first night, but Fran and Miriam, unbeknownst to Ted, just drain him enough, as he sleeps or as he is in some sort of unconscious state, to not kill him. He awakens in the morning with a strange cut on his arm and no sign of Fran. Unable to leave from what is likely a mix of his falling in love with Fran, being a victim of the whole vampire seduction thing, and because of her disappearing just as mysteriously as she came, Ted stays behind waiting in his car all day for her to return.

There’s plenty of opportunities to postulate why Ted was not killed on the first night, unlike the others, left to leave on his own accord, but never doing so, becoming a prisoner in a way, fevered, seduced, and weakened severely from blood loss. I’m not sure if he quite understood what was happening to him, but he did notice Miriam’s lover suddenly dead in a wrecked vehicle on the side of the road, another man who came upon the same situation in the same manner as he.

During a love scene between Miriam and Fran, it is made apparent that Fran is playing some sort of dangerous game by keeping Ted alive, suggesting that she may like him more than the others, or maybe she enjoys prolonging his suffering, knowing with certainty that he’s fallen too heavy for her and the enigmatic game she plays to ever leave.

In addition, the story is kept from feeling too streamlined on Ted’s ordeal by having a couple, John (Brian Deacon) and Harriet (Sally Faulkner), who just so happen to pull up in their camper in the woods just outside of the mansion to enjoy a romantic getaway. Both of these characters do have a certain believability as a couple, and they do add additional depth to the story, with Harriet perceiving the peculiar activity at the mansion with concern, as John feels her imagination has gotten the best of her.

In case anyone was wondering who my favorite vampire is in this movie, it would have to be Fran. Miriam is nice, but I prefer the dark, strange beauty of Fran. If I had a choice of which one I would want to be seduced and victimized by, it would definitely be her. Yet they do seem to share in their blood feeding, so eventually it would become a ménage à trois (great wine, by the way) that definitely wouldn’t end well.

Certain odd peculiarities in the vampires’ behavior make for certain creepy instances, such as Fran appearing dead when Ted wakes up in the middle of the night to find her lying next to him, facing him with a blank stare and unmoving eyes. Also, right before the film’s gory money shot, the moment when Fran comes across Miriam in the hallway, leaning motionless, in a transfixed state of euphoria, against the window with the moonlight shining on the blood dripping down her lips, is quite possibly the best vampire imagery I’ve ever seen.

Though they have to hideaway and sleep during the day, there are a number of fantastic shots of Fran and Miriam moving briskly through the woods and a graveyard outside of a chapel in the foggy autumn daylight. I’m supposing that we are to assume it is dawn and they are retreating to a hiding place for the day or going about the business with the corpses in the wrecked motors.

I won’t avoid mentioning that there’s indeed a heavy languor to Vampyres: Daughters of Dracula that nonetheless feels very appropriate to the Gothic and moody vampire piece. A well centered story and an enjoyably sullen mood helps it along, keeping it from becoming too boring or uninteresting. Not only is it incredibly sexy, but it also feels like a Euro vampire movie done right, with the sensuality and viciousness in Larraz’s female vampires making Vampyres more impressive than the cheap and sleazy movie most might be expecting.